Crushpad auctions off its assets

Crushpad customers put their grapes through the destemmer at Crushpad's old San Francisco, facility, back in 2004. Photo: Darryl Bush / The Chronicle

After months of speculation about its financial turmoil and the possibility that it would close its doors, Crushpad is auctioning off its assets, according to several reports.

The Sonoma-based custom winemaking business, which allowed customers to craft their own barrels of wine, will begin selling off its holdings Tuesday, the Wine Spectator reports. That could affect as many as 500 customers who have wine stored at its facility, part of the Sebastiani space outside the town of Sonoma. The venture moved there after receiving a major investment last year from Bill Foley, who owns Sebastiani and wineries throughout the West Coast.

Given the auction and the growing ranks of creditors who were owed for grapes and winemaking equipment such as barrels, a Crushpad spokesman wrote that “liquidation of Crushpad is a real possibility. If the company were to be liquidated, there is a risk that many clients will lose their wine,” according to the Spectator.

Originally founded in San Francisco in 2004, Crushpad made a hasty move to Napa in 2009, where it remained for a year before another move to Sonoma. The series of moves, and the $3 million investment by Foley, prompted concerns about its financial health. Some customers, unhappy with its departure from San Francisco, opened their own urban winemaking facilities last year. Even the company’s former winemaker Cindy Cosco was concerned enough about its financial health that she recently removed her own barrels full of wine from the facility.

Crushpad CEO Peter Ekman has been silent in recent week’s on the company’s future. But he warned investors last month that the company could fail, according to a copy of a letter posted online.

“We’re trying to avoid a mass liquidation of the business,” Philip Von Burg, a principal of CastleGate Partners, which is trying to buy the Crushpad assets, told the Press Democrat last week. “A lot of these customers have been waiting for their wines for a long time. We’re trying to be the good guys and find a solution that works for everyone.”
· Crushpad’s assets go on the auction block [Wine Spectator]
· Crushpad in financial crisis, selling assets. [Press Democrat]